The Fabulous Fuji X owners thread

Can someone suggest any advice for the Samyang 12mm that I've just bought ?

Its very dark when looking through the EVF and the LCD screen ?

I've changed mount adapter setting to 12mm and put shoot without lens on - any suggestions ?

thanks !
 
justa1972 said:
Can someone suggest any advice for the Samyang 12mm that I've just bought ?

Its very dark when looking through the EVF and the LCD screen ?

I've changed mount adapter setting to 12mm and put shoot without lens on - any suggestions ?

thanks !
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Yes. Easy; if you know how!
You need to go into the blue spanners on the menu.
>Spanner #1.
>Screen Set up.
>Preview Exp./WB in manual mode.
>Set it to on.

I have it assigned to one of my buttons.
 
mickledore said:
Yes. Easy; if you know how!
You need to go into the blue spanners on the menu.
>Spanner #1.
>Screen Set up.
>Preview Exp./WB in manual mode.
>Set it to on.

I have it assigned to one of my buttons.
Click to expand...

Thanks but it was already set to on :(
 
If the shutter is on auto the screen/evf should be showing what the shots will look like. Are the shots dark too? is exposure compensation set??
 
I may be doing something wrong here but I've never changed the mount adaptor setting whatever lens I have on it. What exactly does that do, and could that be part of the problem?
 
Barrysprout said:
If the shutter is on auto the screen/evf should be showing what the shots will look like. Are the shots dark too? is exposure compensation set??
Click to expand...

The images look soft and underexposed - I tried it on an XT-1 and it was fine !!
 
mickledore said:
I may be doing something wrong here but I've never changed the mount adaptor setting whatever lens I have on it. What exactly does that do, and could that be part of the problem?
Click to expand...
I always though it was just for the exif
 
Just had a look at Rico Pfirstinger's excellent book on the X-T1. He seems to say that AE is not available with adapted lenses. Try changing the mount adaptor back to 50mm. It could be that you have told your camera that you have an adapted lens in place so are losing AE.
 
Well the EVF seems ok now but I can't get the hang on manual focusing and I find peak focusing absolutely useless !!!
 
mickledore said:
I may be doing something wrong here but I've never changed the mount adaptor setting whatever lens I have on it. What exactly does that do, and could that be part of the problem?
Click to expand...

As Steve says it just adds the focal length info to the image exif, nothing more.

jakeblu said:
I didn't realise that the shutter had to be set to auto thats useful to know.
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It doesn't have to be, that was just to eliminate the exposure being set wrong leading to the dark screen/evf.

justa1972 said:
The images look soft and underexposed - I tried it on an XT-1 and it was fine !!
Click to expand...

The lens itself can't cause under exposure because it's not passing aperture information to the camera so I'm unsure what could be causing that other than camera settings being set wrong.
 
justa1972 said:
Well the EVF seems ok now but I can't get the hang on manual focusing and I find peak focusing absolutely useless !!!
Click to expand...

Turn focusing peaking off and either:

1. Slowly focus, watching the evf closely. When parts of the image "shimmer" then you are in focus
2. Alternatively zoom in while composing by pushing the rear control dial and focus whlie zoomed in for better accuracy
 
justa1972 said:
Well the EVF seems ok now but I can't get the hang on manual focusing and I find peak focusing absolutely useless !!!
Click to expand...

Try using peak focus with the lens wide open, that allows a slightly better idea of where you have set the focus then step it down for the shot, although with a 12mm even at f2 the peak focus will be lighting up a lot of area.
 
thanks for the advice folks - I'll try it again but I think m/f lens may not be for me

I mean at what point exactly in all the shimmery ness is it supposed to be in focus ?!!?!?

Can't even focus on the writing on the Fuji XT-10 box !

This is more frustration with me than the lens....
 
Barrysprout said:
It doesn't have to be, that was just to eliminate the exposure being set wrong leading to the dark screen/evf.
Click to expand...
Ok, I think I get it now, so it doesn't just display a brighter screen but it displays the current exposure, therefore if its under exposed then the screen will be dark?. Hmmm problem with that is if your using flash then it will be constantly dark, or am I on the wrong track.
 
mickledore said:
Just had a look at Rico Pfirstinger's excellent book on the X-T1. He seems to say that AE is not available with adapted lenses. Try changing the mount adaptor back to 50mm. It could be that you have told your camera that you have an adapted lens in place so are losing AE.
Click to expand...

He only says that you cannot use shutter priority. And given the way that Fuji's work in shutter priority you would effectively be shooting manual anyway as you would be setting the aperture to get your exposure after selecting your chosen shutter speed.

Aperture priority works fine with any manual lens, just set the aperture on the lens and auto shutter and the camera AE will adjust shutter for you. Changing the mount adapter setting to 50mm will only change the info in the exif.
 
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As others said, focus peak on the 12mm will highlight a huge swathe in front of you. Try it with a different lens to get the hang of how it works. Basically, the highlighted area is what the considers to be acceptably sharp, whereas the real pinpoint of focus will be about two thirds into that area.
Lets say anything between 10m and 20m is highlighted - the actual focus point is around 17m, though either side of it is "acceptably sharp".

Three things affect that acceptable area - focal length, distance and aperture. At 12mm the area will be naturally huge, and stopping down any more than f5.6 will likely bring almost infinite focus.
On my old samyang, i'd set focus to 3m then stop down to 5.6. That'd give me everything from infinity down to about 1.5m away in focus. If I needed closer than 1.5m, i'd either focus slightly closer or stop down a touch, but it really needn't be an exact science at 12mm.
 
jakeblu said:
Ok, I think I get it now, so it doesn't just display a brighter screen but it displays the current exposure, therefore if its under exposed then the screen will be dark?. Hmmm problem with that is if your using flash then it will be constantly dark, or am I on the wrong track.
Click to expand...

That's where switching the preview exposure in manual mode comes in. Switch it off and you will always have a viewable image in the viewfinder or screen but it won't be an accurate depiction of the light in your shot, which when using flash it would never be anyway.
 
justa1972 said:
I'm being really thick here but why can't you select Zone focusing on a m/f lens ?
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Just though after replyimg, are you maybe getting confused after reading somewhere about zone focussing for manual lenses?

If so, the zone focus method has been pretty much covered by @jimmyjamjojo 's reply above. Where you set the focus distance on your lens and your chosen aperture this will give you an area which will be acceptably sharp. A depth of field calculator such as this one will give a good guide to the "zone" you can shoot. You can also get a d.o.f. calculator on your phone for using in the field.
 
Barrysprout said:
That's where switching the preview exposure in manual mode comes in. Switch it off and you will always have a viewable image in the viewfinder or screen but it won't be an accurate depiction of the light in your shot, which when using flash it would never be anyway.
Click to expand...
(y)
 
Just another question !! Is it easier to manual focus in nice bright conditions rather than this dull grey crap we have today ?
 
justa1972 said:
Just another question !! Is it easier to manual focus in nice bright conditions rather than this dull grey crap we have today ?
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The more light the better, but in all honesty the Samyang is one of the easiest lenses to manual focus (given it's focal length). Keep at it and you might get used to it :)
 
justa1972 said:
Just another question !! Is it easier to manual focus in nice bright conditions rather than this dull grey crap we have today ?
Click to expand...

manualfocus-g said:
The more light the better, but in all honesty the Samyang is one of the easiest lenses to manual focus (given it's focal length). Keep at it and you might get used to it :)
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As Graham says the more light the better. The Fuji's can compensate for lack of light by boosting the EVF image but it becomes noisy and harder to manually focus. But any day light shouldn't be a problem. Get out take some nice scenes at f5.6 - f8, don;t worry too much about focus because at those apertures you should be getting good results. Then when reviewing your shots, look at the complete image and if it pleases you then job done! don't start analysing at a pixel level because that leads to financial ruin and the never ending quest for the perfect lens :D
 
Barrysprout said:
As Graham says the more light the better. The Fuji's can compensate for lack of light by boosting the EVF image but it becomes noisy and harder to manually focus. But any day light shouldn't be a problem. Get out take some nice scenes at f5.6 - f8, don;t worry too much about focus because at those apertures you should be getting good results. Then when reviewing your shots, look at the complete image and if it pleases you then job done! don't start analysing at a pixel level because that leads to financial ruin and the never ending quest for the perfect lens :D
Click to expand...

Well said!,"perfect lens",does such a thing exist??
Answers on a Postcard?;)
 
I've always found manually focusing with the X-T1 a doddle for the most part, yeah it does help if its nice and bright but the large viewfinder and the many different focusing aids really help

Small Hoverfly by Steve Vickers, on Flickr

I took this today, with my X-T1 and an old Tokina 28mm FD. What I like about the FD fitting is the adapter has a lock ring and if you unlock it, it opens the aperture wide, making focusing easier. You can then just lock it back and it sets to the aperture you have chosen. I used to have a Helios 44 that had a preset ring and that was handy too for opening the aperture wide without fiddling with the aperture ring
 
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Barrysprout said:
XF-16, 23, 35, 56, 90 are all close enough for me!
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XF-14, 13, 35, 56 are all close enough for me.
Plus my Samyang 8mm fisheye which is always in my bag. Always focusses perfectly. Manual focus but what's the problem in that? Sharp as needs be. Image in viewfinder is always bright. What's not to like?
 
I often miss my 8mm, it was my drinking lens.

No matter how many I'd had it was hard to not point it in the right direction (although I don't miss having to crop my belly or feet out of shots) and set at f8 the focus ring was all but redundant.
 
Barrysprout said:
I often miss my 8mm, it was my drinking lens.

No matter how many I'd had it was hard to not point it in the right direction (although I don't miss having to crop my belly or feet out of shots) and set at f8 the focus ring was all but redundant.
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Yes. F8 and all is in focus. For £200 or so it's a steal of a lens. Did you know that you can set lens correction for Nikon 10mm fish eye in Lightroom and it works on the Sammy?
 
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